Computer virtualization is a technique that involves encapsulating a physical computing machine platform into a virtual machine that is executed under the control of virtualization software running on a hardware computing platform (also referred to herein as “host system” or “host computer”). A group of hardware computing platforms may be organized as a cluster to provide the hardware resources for virtual machines. In a data center that employs virtual machines, it is common to see hundreds, even thousands, of virtual machines running on multiple clusters of host systems.
Cloud computing refers to distributed allocation of computing resources via a computer network rather than from a single local computer. A “cloud” can include one or more virtual centers, each virtual center including one or more data centers. Each data center can be comprises of one or more host computers or clusters of host computers.
An entity that provides cloud computing resources to other organizations can implement a cloud management application to manage the allocations of the computing resources to the organizations. For example, vCloud Director™ offered by VMware, Inc.® provides such management services. The cloud management application can allow cloud administrators to view the security of their networks between organizations and virtual applications.
Certain security issues may arise in a cloud computing environment. For example, different organizations connected to the same external network may be able to view, and potentially modify, another organization's traffic, which can lead to a security breach. Moreover, disabled firewalls may allow unauthorized network traffic into and out of a network.
Current approaches to cloud management applications implement a list-based or table-based approach to visualizing the organizations and network connections in the cloud. For example, one list may include a listing of the external networks and another list may include a listing of all of the organizations in the cloud with corresponding external networks. There is currently no way for the cloud administrator to easily and quickly ascertain the network connections for various organizations in the cloud and to identify possible security issues.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a user interface for managing a cloud computing environment that addresses the drawbacks and limitations discussed above.